Glenda Korporal | The Australian


NEWCREST chief executive Greg Robinson has had the dubious distinction of seeing the share price of his company halve since he took over in July 2011.

When he succeeded Ian Smith, the shares in Australia’s largest goldmining company and one of the world’s largest goldminers were approaching $40.

Now, long-suffering Newcrest investors have the rest of the Easter break to decide whether they might regard Thursday’s closing price of just over $20 as one of those “buy on weakness” events or a sign to further exit the company’s shares following the latest piece of disappointing news.

It was only last month that Robinson, on releasing the company’s half yearly results, was assuring investors he was hopeful the company would meet the lower end of its production guidance range of 2.3 million to 2.5 million ounces of gold.

This followed confirmation that the company’s interim profit…